Selected Information
- Proposed Research

CP436 Opportunities and threats in adopting the National Address Gazetteer

Business Planning

Project Appreciation and Objectives

The publicly owned Ordnance Survey address information for England and Wales, Address Layer 2 (AL2) and the local authorities' National Land and Property Gazetteer will shortly be brought together to create the National Address Gazetteer (NAG); providing one definitive source of accurate spatial data. Subject to Office of Fair Trading clearance, the database contents will be viewable by April 2011, followed by a 3-4 month customer consultation period before being formally released.

UK Water Utilities currently rely on AL2 data sets for both GIS and customer contact systems. Different data and database structures are likely to hinder migration to NAG and there is a significant risk that information may be misinterpreted during transformation. However, NAG will offer one third more addresses - potentially allowing: improved billing accuracy; online access to up-to-date addresses; and linkage to data provided by third parties e.g. census data. It will also contain additional key spatial data which should improve new housing development connections and connectivity between network incidents, such as leakage, and the customer.

This project will help Utilities smoothly migrate to and maximise the potential benefits from adopting the NAG. Cost savings through the bulk purchase of the NAG will also be explored.